System and method for decentralizing public transportation passengers using transportation card reader

ABSTRACT

Provided are a system and method for decentralizing public transportation passengers using a transportation card reader. The system includes a vehicle terminal including a transportation card reader counting the number of touches of transportation cards of riding and exiting passengers of a public transportation means and configured to transmit a count value to a center, an integrated database server provided in the center and configured to update a count value of each public transportation means with a transmitted count value of the public transportation means and transmit the updated count value to a station, a station terminal provided at the station and configured to display the updated and transmitted count value, and a mobile device configured to receive information on the riding and exiting passengers of the public transportation means from the integrated database server or the station terminal and output the received information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2013-0122552, filed on Oct. 15, 2013, the disclosureof which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for decentralizingpublic transportation passengers, and more particularly, to a publictransportation passenger decentralization system and method that providedata of the number of public transportation passengers using atransportation card reader and thereby lead to decentralization ofpublic transportation passengers.

2. Discussion of Related Art

Due to the development of public transportation, 60% or more citizens ofthe capital area in Korea use buses and subways as means oftransportation these days. Since most citizens use public transportationas means of commuting, passengers are frequently concentrated at aspecific time. By way of example, when an excessive number of passengersget on a bus, traveling speed is lowered, or the danger of an accidentincreases.

Although more buses and trains are put into service in the commutingtime, such a trouble occurs. This is because, even when passengers knowthat a bus coming to a bus stop is overloaded, it is difficult toestimate a state of the next bus, and the passengers tend to get on theoverloaded bus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a public transportation passengerdecentralization system and method that count the number of passengersof public transportation through a transportation card reader inconsideration of most public transportation passengers of the capitalarea using transportation cards, present the degree of congestion ofpassengers in a currently incoming public transportation means and thedegree of congestion of passengers in the next public transportationmeans on an electronic display of a station and through a mobile publictransportation information application in graphics, etc., and therebylead to decentralization of public transportation passengers.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided asystem for decentralizing public transportation passengers using atransportation card reader, including: a vehicle terminal including atransportation card reader counting the number of touches oftransportation cards of riding and exiting passengers of a publictransportation means, and configured to transmit a count value to acenter; an integrated database server provided in the center, andconfigured to update a count value of each public transportation meanswith a transmitted count value of the public transportation means andtransmit the updated count value to a station; and a station terminalprovided at the station, and configured to display the updated andtransmitted count value.

The system may further include a mobile device configured to receiveinformation on the riding and exiting passengers of the publictransportation means from the integrated database server or the stationterminal, and output the received information. Here, the integrateddatabase server may transmit a response message using extensible markuplanguage (XML) in response to a query message transmitted from themobile device using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

The vehicle terminal may use location information on the station, andtransmit the location information and passenger number data to theintegrated database server at a departing moment after a stop at thestation.

The integrated database server may separately manage a static area formanaging static data including the public transportation means andstations, and a dynamic area for managing dynamic data includinglocations of the public transportation means and the number ofpassengers in respective tables, and upon receiving passenger numberdata and a location of the public transportation means, the integrateddatabase server may access information on a station at which the publictransportation means will stop with reference to the static area whilerecording the passenger number data and the location of the publictransportation means in the dynamic area, and multicast the number ofpassengers and the location information to a station terminal groupusing a Gateway Control Module (GCM) protocol.

The station terminal may display route numbers of the publictransportation means, types of the public transportation means, anexpected arrival time of and passenger number information on the closestpublic transportation means, and an expected arrival time of andpassenger number information on the next public transportation means. Atthis time, the degree of congestion of the number of passengers may bedesigned in the form of a gauge, and a case in which the number ofpassengers is less than the number of seats of the public transportationmeans, a case in which the number of passengers is greater than or equalto 100% of the number of seats of the public transportation means and isless than or equal to 120% of the number of seats, and a case in whichthe number of passengers is greater than 120% of the number of seats ofthe public transportation means may be displayed in different gaugecolors.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method of decentralizing public transportation passengers using atransportation card reader, including: (a) transmitting, at a vehicleterminal, a count value of transportation cards of riding and exitingpassengers touched to a transportation card reader to an integrateddatabase server; (b) updating, at the integrated database server, acount value of each public transportation means with a transmitted countvalue of the public transportation means, and transmitting the updatedcount value to a station terminal; and (c) displaying, at the stationterminal, the updated and transmitted count value.

(a) may include using, at the vehicle terminal, location information ona station, and transmitting the location information and passengernumber data to the integrated database server at a departing momentafter a stop at the station.

(b) may further include transmitting a response message to a mobiledevice using XML in response to a public transportation informationrequest of the mobile device.

(b) may further include: separately managing, at the integrated databaseserver, a static area for managing static data including the publictransportation means and stations, and a dynamic area for managingdynamic data including locations of the public transportation means andthe number of passengers in respective tables; and upon receivingpassenger number data and a location of the public transportation means,accessing, at the integrated database server, information on a stationat which the public transportation means will stop with reference to thestatic area while recording the passenger number data and the locationof the public transportation means in the dynamic area, and multicastingthe number of passengers and the location information to a stationterminal group using a GCM protocol.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention will become more apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with referenceto the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of a system for decentralizing publictransportation passengers according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the operational flow of a vehicleterminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an integrated database server according toan exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a simulation module of a transportation card readeraccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a prototype layout of an electronic display at a busstation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 6 shows a prototype layout of a bus information applicationaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While thepresent invention is shown and described in connection with exemplaryembodiments thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the artthat various modifications can be made without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention.

Description of the present invention will be followed by briefdescription of supporting technologies relating to the present invention(ODROID-X2, Linaro Ubuntu Linux, open Application Programming Interfaces(APIs), and extensible markup language (XML)).

In the present invention, description will be made by taking a bus as anexample of a public transportation means. Needless to say, the presentinvention can be applied to all public transportation means including asubway, etc. as well as a bus.

In description of drawings, the same reference numeral will be given tocomponents that perform the same function.

ODROID-X2

An ODROID-X2 board is an embedded board in which Exynos4412-primeApplication Processor (AP) of Samsung Corp. is installed. The ODROID-X2board is based on ARMv7 Industry Standard Architecture (ISA), and thusis suitable for installing an Android platform. The ODROID-X2 boardshows high operating speed with 1.7 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 quad coresinstalled thereon. Also, the ODROID-X2 board supports many input/output(I/O) ports, such as universal serial bus (USB) 2.0, UniversalAsynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART), High Definition MultimediaInterface (HDMI), Ethernet, and General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO), andthus facilitates construction of an embedded server and manufacturing ofan electronic display application for a bus stop [1].

Linaro Ubuntu Linux

Linaro is an organization that develops an open source of Linux, etc.,for the ARM architecture. Representatively, Linaro has developed andreleased Ubuntu Linux, Android, Open Embedded, etc. for ARM, and allsource code has been published under General Public License (GPL).Ubuntu Linux provides a high level of security due to support formulti-user and protection of a root account, which are typicalcharacteristics of the Unix series, and thus is suitable for use in aserver. Also, Ubuntu Linux is used by the largest number of users amongfree Linux distribution, and thus is easily maintained [2].

Open API

An open API is an API open to enable an Internet user not only to beunilaterally provided with search results, a user interface, etc. butalso to develop application programs and service in person. Recently, asa necessity to use big data increases, a demand and necessity foropening public information to the public are in the limelight, andcountries, local governments, public institutions, etc. are opening anincreasing amount of information to the public through an open API. Whendevelopers request a permission to use the API from a public institutionusing the information, are issued an authentication key, and send aquery to an institution server according to a protocol set by theinstitution, they can receive desired data as a response [3].

XML

XML is a multi-purpose markup language recommended by World Wide WebConsortium (W3C) to create other markup languages for special purposes.XML can be applied to describe numerous kinds of data, and has beenmainly designed to enable different systems connected to the Internet toeasily exchange data with each other. Most open APIs of major portalsites, domestic public institutions, etc. deliver data to users usingXML. In general, to parse data received using XML, Java uses a DocumentObject Model (DOM) that is a static parser or a Simple API for XML (SAX)that is a dynamic parser [4].

Also in a system according to an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, XML is used for an integrated database server to transmit businformation.

Hereinafter, a system and method for decentralizing publictransportation passengers using a transportation card reader accordingto exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a structure diagram of a system for decentralizing publictransportation passengers according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system for decentralizing public transportationpassengers according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventionincludes a vehicle terminal 1 counting touches of transportation cardsof riding and exiting passengers of a public transportation means andtransmitting a count value to a center, an integrated database server 2provided in the center, updating a count value of each publictransportation means with a transmitted count value of the publictransportation means, and transmitting the updated count value tostations, and station terminals 3 provided at the stations anddisplaying the updated and transmitted count value.

Additionally, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, thesystem includes a mobile device 4 receiving information on riding andexiting passengers of public transportation means from the integrateddatabase server 2 or the station terminals 3 and outputting the receivedinformation.

Here, the vehicle terminal 1 includes a transportation card readercapable of counting touches of transportation cards.

In the operation of the system constituted as above, the vehicleterminal 1 including the transportation card reader installed in a buscounts touches of transportation cards of riding and exiting passengersto measure the number of current passengers, and transmits the number tothe integrated database server 2 together with a unique number of thebus. The integrated database server 2 receiving the passenger numberdata from the vehicle terminal 1 updates a database, and transmits thechanged information to station terminals 3 located on a route of thebus.

Embedded processors installed in the station terminals 3 receive the newpassenger number data and update data, and display information includinga real-time passenger number of a first incoming bus and that of thenext incoming bus on an electronic display of bus stops according toroutes. Also, a user of the mobile device 4 may check the degree ofcongestion of passengers in a bus when checking bus information througha mobile device application. At this time, the mobile device 4 may beconnected to the integrated database server 2 or a station terminal 3through a wired/wireless network.

Passengers can make a reasonable selection by visually comparing thedegree of congestion of passengers in an incoming bus with that of thenext bus, and thereby passengers conventionally concentrated at aspecific bus can be decentralized.

Vehicle Terminal (Transportation Card Reader)

An existing Bus Information System (BIS) is an integration of a vehicleterminal and a transportation card reader, and is only used for managinga bus service and using location information. In the system according toan exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the integrated vehicleterminal 1 counts the number of current passengers according to ridingand exiting of passengers, and generates and stores a count value.

In principle, a bus enables passengers to get on and off at designatedspots only, and thus the vehicle terminal 1 installed in a bus mayreduce the load of the integrated database server 2 by transmittingpassenger number data (count value) stored in the vehicle terminal 1 tothe integrated database server 2 using location information only at amoment when the bus departs after a stop at a station. The determinationthat the bus leaves after a stop at a station can be made using anaccelerometer of the bus, etc. while the vehicle terminal 1 is presentin the wireless communication area of the station terminals 3. This isillustrated in FIG. 2 by way of operation of the vehicle terminal 1.

Integrated Database Server

The integrated database server 2 is an embedded server employingORDROID-X2, and a server program is run on a Linaro Ubuntu system forsmooth communication and security.

The database of the integrated database server 2 separately manages astatic area for managing static data, such as unique information onbuses and stations, and a dynamic area for managing dynamic datachanging in real time, such as locations of the buses and the number ofpassengers, in respective tables.

A constitution of the integrated database server 2 is illustrated inFIG. 3.

The server program performs one-way communication between the vehicleterminal 1 and the station terminals 3. When updated locationinformation and passenger number information on a bus is received fromthe vehicle terminal 1, the server program accesses information on astation at which the bus will stop with reference to the static areawhile recording the location information and the passenger numberinformation in the dynamic area of the database, and multicasts thepassenger number and the location information to a group of targetstation terminals 3 using a Gateway Control Module (GCM) protocol.

Another operation of the integrated database server 2 is query andresponse with a mobile device application (referred to as “mobiledevice” below).

Communications for the query and response is performed through a portdifferent than that of communication of the vehicle terminal 1, theintegrated database server 2, and the station terminal 3. The integrateddatabase server 2 exchanges information with the mobile device 4 usinghypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) through port #80 that is a well-knownport. When the mobile device 4 transmits a request message according tothe determined protocol, the integrated database server 2 transmits backa response message using XML. As a method used by most existing openAPIs, this maintains as high compatibility as possible with an existingbus information application, and can be easily applied to a BIS also.

Station Terminal

In the station terminals 3, ORDROID X2 is used, and the Android platformis installed, such that a GCM push message can be received. The stationterminals 3 update location information and passenger number informationon a bus received using a GCM, and display the location information andpassenger number information on displays.

A display shows six kinds of information. A first kind of information isroute numbers of buses, and a second kind of information is informationon the types of the buses, such as a general city bus, a low-floor bus,an express city bus, and a wide-regional express bus. A third kind ofinformation is an estimated arrival time of the closest bus among busesof the corresponding route number, and a fourth kind of information isinformation on the number of passengers in the bus. Successively, anestimated arrival time of and passenger number information on the nextclosest bus are displayed in parallel.

To effectively present the degree of congestion of passengers, a designin the form of a gauge is used in this system. When the number ofpassengers is less than the number of seats in a bus, it is determinedthat there are empty seats, and the gauge is displayed in green. Whenthe number of passengers is greater than or equal to 100% of the numberof seats in a bus and less than or equal to 120% of the number of seats,the gauge is displayed in orange, which means that there are as manystanding passengers as the bus can smoothly run. When the number ofpassengers exceeds 120% of the number of seats in a bus, the gauge isdisplayed in red to indicate that the bus is crowded with passengers andmay not smoothly run.

Mobile Device

Upon connection by the user, the mobile device 4 receives a stationnumber or a desired bus route number from the user, queries thecorresponding information to the integrated database server 2 usingHTTP, and receives resultant response data using XML. The received datais parsed using a parser object, such that an estimated arrival time ofand passenger number information on a bus may be extracted. Like astation display, on the bases of the extracted information, anapplication may present passenger number information on the closest busand an arrival time of and passenger number information on the next bus.Since the mobile device 4 has less screen restrictions than a stationdisplay, it is possible to present information on more subsequent buses.

A method of decentralizing public transportation passengers using atransportation card reader according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention in the system constituted as described above will bedescribed.

In a method of decentralizing public transportation passengers using atransportation card reader according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention, (a) a vehicle terminal transmits a count value oftransportation cards of riding and exiting passengers touched to atransportation card reader to the integrated database server, (b) theintegrated database server updates a count value of each publictransportation means with the transmitted count value of the publictransportation means and transmits the updated count values to a stationterminal, and (c) the station terminal displays the updated andtransmitted count value.

In step (a), the vehicle terminal uses location information on astation, and transmits the location information and passenger numberdata to the integrated database server at a departing moment after astop at the station.

In step (b), the integrated database server transmits a response messageto the mobile device using XML in response to a public transportationinformation request of the mobile device.

In step (b), the integrated database server separately manages a staticarea for managing static data including the public transportation meansand stations, and a dynamic area for managing dynamic data includinglocations of the public transportation means and the number ofpassengers in respective tables, and upon receiving passenger numberdata and a location of the public transportation means, the integrateddatabase server accesses information on a station at which the publictransportation means will stop with reference to the static area whilerecording the passenger number data and the location of the publictransportation means in the dynamic area, and multicasts the number ofpassengers and the location information to a station terminal groupusing the GCM protocol.

Implementation and Running of Decentralization System

In the system for decentralizing public transportation passengers usinga transportation card reader according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention, the vehicle terminal 1 is implemented as a virtualsimulation module in a smartphone device capable of reading a radiofrequency identification (RFID) card instead of a transportation cardreader of an actual bus. FIG. 4 shows a simulation module of atransportation card reader, which can virtually simulate the number ofpassengers by touching the simulation module with a designatedtransportation card while moving a bus in a determined station.

Bus location and passenger number data transmitted from thetransportation card reader is reflected in the integrated databaseserver 2, and displayed on an electronic display at a bus stop as shownin FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG. 6, the reflected bus location and passenger numberinformation can also be checked through a bus information application byrequesting XML data from the integrated database server 2.

As described above, an exemplary embodiment of the present inventionproposes a system for decentralizing passengers using a transportationcard reader to improve citizens' convenience of using publictransportation and safety, such that the citizens can easily check thenumber of passengers in an incoming bus and that of the next bus throughelectronic displays at bus stops and mobile devices 4 and select and geton buses in which passengers are not concentrated. Accordingly, overloadof a vehicle is prevented, and also it is possible to expect a reductionin fuel expenses.

The system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventionhas been designed to be compatible with BISs, which have already beenused in cities and provinces, using the integrated vehicle terminal 1 inaccordance with XML transfer through an open API. Accordingly, thesystem can be rapidly introduced and will bring forward realization of aubiquitous (U)-city.

When a technique for sensing the number of passengers other than atransportation card reader is researched and developed hereafter, it ispossible to develop a system for checking the number of persons waitingat a bus stop and a system for decentralizing waiting persons throughmeasuring the number of passengers according to cars of a subway on thebasis of the present invention.

As described above, in a system and method for decentralizing publictransportation passengers according to exemplary embodiments of thepresent invention, when a currently incoming public transportation meansis overloaded with passengers, it is possible to check the state of thenext public transportation means and determine whether or not to get onthe currently incoming public transportation means. Accordingly, it ispossible to improve the convenience of public transportation passengers,increase the traveling speed of public transportation, and also reducethe danger of an accident.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications can be made to the above-described exemplary embodimentsof the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention coversall such modifications provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for decentralizing public transportationpassengers using a transportation card reader, comprising: a vehicleterminal including a transportation card reader counting the number oftouches of transportation cards of riding and exiting passengers of apublic transportation means, and configured to transmit a count value toa center; an integrated database server provided in the center, andconfigured to update a count value of each public transportation meanswith a transmitted count value of the public transportation means andtransmit the updated count value to a station; and a station terminalprovided at the station, and configured to display the updated andtransmitted count value.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising amobile device configured to receive information on the riding andexiting passengers of the public transportation means from theintegrated database server or the station terminal, and output thereceived information.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the integrateddatabase server transmits a response message using extensible markuplanguage (XML) in response to a query message transmitted from themobile device using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the vehicle terminal uses location information on thestation, and transmits the location information and passenger numberdata to the integrated database server at a departing moment after astop at the station.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the integrateddatabase server separately manages a static area for managing staticdata including the public transportation means and stations, and adynamic area for managing dynamic data including locations of the publictransportation means and a number of passengers in respective tables,and upon receiving passenger number data and a location of the publictransportation means, the integrated database server accessesinformation on a station at which the public transportation means willstop with reference to the static area while recording the passengernumber data and the location of the public transportation means in thedynamic area, and multicasts the number of passengers and the locationinformation to a station terminal group using a Gateway Control Module(GCM) protocol.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the station terminaldisplays route numbers of the public transportation means, types of thepublic transportation means, an expected arrival time of and passengernumber information on a closest public transportation means, and anexpected arrival time of and passenger number information on a nextpublic transportation means.
 7. The system of claim 6, wherein a degreeof congestion of passengers is designed in the form of a gauge, and acase in which the number of passengers is less than a number of seats ofthe public transportation means, a case in which the number ofpassengers is greater than or equal to 100% of the number of seats ofthe public transportation means and is less than or equal to 120% of thenumber of seats, and a case in which the number of passengers is greaterthan 120% of the number of seats of the public transportation means aredisplayed in different gauge colors.
 8. A method of decentralizingpublic transportation passengers using a transportation card reader,comprising: (a) transmitting, at a vehicle terminal, a count value oftransportation cards of riding and exiting passengers touched to atransportation card reader to an integrated database server; (b)updating, at the integrated database server, a count value of eachpublic transportation means with a transmitted count value of the publictransportation means, and transmitting the updated count value to astation terminal; and (c) displaying, at the station terminal, theupdated and transmitted count value.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein(a) includes using, at the vehicle terminal, location information on astation, and transmitting the location information and passenger numberdata to the integrated database server at a departing moment after astop at the station.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein (b) furtherincludes transmitting a response message to a mobile device usingextensible markup language (XML) in response to a public transportationinformation request of the mobile device.
 11. The method of claim 8,wherein (b) further includes: separately managing, at the integrateddatabase server, a static area for managing static data including thepublic transportation means and stations, and a dynamic area formanaging dynamic data including locations of the public transportationmeans and a number of passengers in respective tables; and uponreceiving passenger number data and a location of the publictransportation means, accessing, at the integrated database server,information on a station at which the public transportation means willstop with reference to the static area while recording the passengernumber data and the location of the public transportation means in thedynamic area, and multicasting the number of passengers and the locationinformation to a station terminal group using a Gateway Control Module(GCM) protocol.